Medical surgery, whether reconstructive, cosmetic, palliative, or otherwise, is highly patient specific. Even though most surgery patients have the same basic physical architecture, every body has its own set of specific features and dimensions with respect to its individual organs, tissues, and structures that in certain cases may be significantly different from those of expected norms. As a result, surgeons must rely upon their individual experience and skills to adapt whatever surgical techniques they are practicing to the individual requirements as determined by each patient's unique structural features and dimensions.
To date, this individualized surgical adaptation has been accomplished essentially through freehand techniques based upon a pre-surgery examination and evaluation of the individual patient's target surgical site. This examination may include preliminary measurements as well as the surgeon making reference markings directly on the patient's skin with a pen or other form of dye or ink marking. Then, after the patient has been prepared and placed in position for surgery, typically in a supine or prone position as opposed to the often vertical positioning of the patient during the pre-surgery examination, the surgeon adapts the placement and configuration of initial surgical incisions to actual physical dimensions and circumstances found on or within the patient as the surgical procedure progresses. As a result, many initial measurements or reference markings on the patient's skin are at best general guides as to where to begin the procedure and have limited accuracy and influence on subsequent aspects of the procedure or on the overall outcome of the surgery.
Further complicating matters, there are numerous areas of the body which are not conducive to pre-surgery reference markings or measurements, such as fatty tissue that shifts substantially upon movement of the patient. For example, a marking placed on the breast of a female for cosmetic surgery when standing upright, will find a completely different position once the female assumes the supine position on the surgical table. This shift in pre-surgical markings is often a contributing factor to post operative asymmetry between cosmetically altered breasts.
Additionally, pre-surgical washing and sterilization processes may dissolve, alter or even remove reference markings from the patient's skin or other external tissues prior to the initiation of surgery. Similarly, subsequent wiping and contact with fluids, including the patient's body fluids, may remove or distort any remaining reference markings. As a result, even the most accurate surgical reference markings may lose any practical effectiveness beyond the initial stages of the surgical process.
Accordingly, in spite of ongoing development and growing sophistication of contemporary medical surgery, there is a continuing need in the art for the provision of effective virtual surgical guides.